Sting
biography
Gordon Matthew Sumner, CBE (born October 2,
1951), best known by his stage name Sting, is an English musician and formerly
bassist and lead singer of The Police.
Biography
Sumner was born in
Before playing music professionally, Sumner worked
as a ditch digger and a primary school teacher. His first music gigs were
wherever he could get a job. He played with local jazz bands such as the
Phoenix Jazzmen and Last Exit. It is most likely that he gained his nickname
while with the Jazzmen. He once performed wearing a black and yellow striped
jersey that fellow band member Gordon Solomon had noted made him look like a
bumblebee, thus he became Sting. He uses Sting almost exclusively, except on
official documents.
The Police
In 1977, Sting, Stewart Copeland, and Andy
Summers, formed the rock/pop band The Police in
Sting has occasionally ventured into acting.
He made his film debut in 1979's Quadrophenia. Apart
from playing a devil-like character in Brimstone and Treacle (1982), one of his
more famous roles was that of Feyd-Rautha in the 1984
film adaptation of Dune. More recently, he appeared in Guy Ritchie's Lock,
Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. He has also made appearances on television
(including guest spots on The Simpsons and Ally McBeal) and stage. Most of his later credits in films and
TV are for his music.
Solo
1985's The Dream of the Blue Turtles,
featuring a star-studded cast of jazz musicians, was Sting's first solo album.
It included the hit single "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free".
Within a year, it reached Triple Platinum. He also sang the introduction and
chorus to "Money for Nothing", a groundbreaking song by Dire Straits.
Sting released Nothing Like the Sun (1987), including the hit songs "We'll
Be Together" and "Be Still My Beating Heart", dedicated to his
recently deceased mother. It eventually went Double Platinum.
In the late 1980s, Sting strongly supported
environmentalism and humanitarian movements, including Amnesty International.
With long-time girlfriend Trudie Styler
and a Kayapó Indian leader in
His 1991 album The Soul Cages was dedicated
to his recently deceased father and included the top 10 song "All this
Time" and the Grammy winning "Soul Cages". The album eventually
went Platinum. The following year, he married Trudie Styler and was awarded an honorary doctorate degree in
music from
Sting reached a pinnacle of success in 1994.
Together with Bryan Adams and Rod Stewart, they performed the chart-topping
song "All For Love" from the film The Three
Musketeers. The song stayed at the top of the
Sting's 1996 album, Mercury Falling debuted
strongly, but dropped quickly on the charts.
He made a
(partial) comeback with the September 1999 album Brand New Day, including the
Top 40 hits "Brand New Day" and "Desert Rose" (Top 10).
2002 was a year of awards for Sting. He won a
Golden Globe Award and was nominated for his second Academy Award for his song
"Until..." from the film Kate & Leopold. In June, he was inducted
into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Late in the year, it was announced that The
Police would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2003. In
the summer, Sumner was made a Commander in the Order of the
2003 also saw the release of Sacred Love, an
original studio album with racier beats and experiments collaborating with
hip-hop artist Mary J. Blige and sitar maestro Anoushka Shankar. His
autobiography Broken Music was published in October. Sting embarked on a Sacred
Love tour in 2004 with performances by Annie Lennox. Also in 2004, his song
"You Will Be My Ain True Love" for the
Personal life
Sting married actress Frances Tomelty on May 1, 1976. The couple had two children, Joseph
(born 1976), and Catherine (born 1982), before they divorced in 1984. Soon
after, Sting began living with actress (and later film producer) Trudie Styler but the two did not
marry until 1992. Sting and Trudie have four children
(Bridget Michael ["Mickey"], James, Eliot Pauline ["